On dismissing theautohypnosis the body was as real as if he had lived all his lifein it. It was the most wonderful feeling. This was how he hadwanted to feel for ages. He had emotions and real feelings again.Now he could feel real anger at what the Mentarin had done. Now hecould use his animal emotions to fight and even up with thoseMentarin bastards who took Miranda’s spirit but for now it must becool controlled anger. The beast in him would have its chancelater.
Slivver noticed thechange in Miranda’s body first.
‘It’s really youagain.’ said Slivver quite astounded. ‘You won’t harm me will you.I belong to the mistress now.’
‘No. Slivver. You havedone a wonderful job looking after Princess Miranda’s body. I amgoing to look after it for a while until we can find her and giveit back. You may stay with me but that means I will be watchingyou. I’m sure you know I have much more power now. Watch but don’tinterfere or I will cast you off. You may talk occasionally if youwish. I will welcome any local knowledge that you have which may beof use to us. Do you agree?’
Slivver agreed. Whywouldn’t he? This was an opportunity of a life time. He had thebest seat in the house to see what might be history being made. Yeshe agreed.
Aquitain suddenly satup on the trolley. Crys and the mirror slid off his abdomen andfell to the floor with a crash startling Bellen.
‘Oh I am sorry Crys.’he said as he looked around to see who was present then climbed offthe trolley and picked up Crys.
‘It’s wonderful to seeyer alive again Yer Majesty.’ said Bellen.
‘I have made a copy ofyer and we was going to stick it in the maze garden.’
‘Bellen, I’m not QueenMiranda. Her spirit has been stolen. I’m Aquitain. I’ve takencontrol of her body so that it doesn’t die. When I find her spiritI’ll give it back to her.’
Bellen saw Crys movingits arms and with a confused look on his face asked.
‘How can yer be inQueen Miranda’s body and yer own at the same time?’
‘I have left a smallpart of my spirit in my crystal body. It will keep that body aliveuntil I need it again. It is now like a construct and I have namedit Crys. You must keep this a secret between the four of us here inthe room.’
‘Er … which four of usLord Warden, unless me fingers have changed, I think there’s fiveof us.’ said Bellen a little confused.
‘Sorry Bellen, Icounted myself only once. You’re quite right, I should have countedmyself twice.’ he said as he thought to himself.
‘In fact I had betterbe careful because there’s two more bits of me out there somewhereas well. I wonder how many bits of my spirit I can lose before Istop being me?’
‘This is likely to bequite confusing.’ said Yllandril huffily not sounding toopleased.
‘What do we call younow? You are neither Miranda nor Aquitain but something inbetween.’
‘You’re rightYllandril. It is too confusing.’ so he shape changed to his oldmale body shape of Rob Theolaur.
‘This is how I lookedbefore when I had a Newman body. Is this better?’
‘By the powers!’ saidBellen. ‘Yer a shape shifter! Can you mimic other people andcreatures?’
‘Yep’ replied Aquitainwith a grin. ‘I want this to remain a secret between us okay.’
‘Okay, Lord Warden.’replied Bellen but Yllandril was noticeably quiet.
‘Are you going to dosomething about Astaria now my Lady?’ asked the Rat Catcher.
‘What do yer want to dowith the statue of Princess Miranda.’ asked Bellen.
‘What are we going todo about the spirit creatures?’ asked Yllandril.
‘Okay! Okay all of you.I know we’ve got lots of problems to sort out but I feel a littledisoriented in this female body. I used to be a male you know. Infact my stomach feels unwell and my head aches.’
‘That’s probablybecause Miranda got dead drunk on Trixie brew yesterday and her, Imean your body, still hasn’t recovered yet.’ said Yllandril.
‘Thanks Yllandril I wastempted to think that it was somehow caused by me taking over thisbody. I’ll adjust my metabolism and see if that will ease theproblem. Now to work!’
‘First I want thestatue of Miranda placed in the maze garden as planned. It will bea good decoy. They will think that we believe she is dead andhopefully that will buy us some time.’
‘Will you look afterthat please Bellen? Also remember that you think she is dead so actlike you believe it. Do whatever you do when someone importantdies.’
‘Okay Lord Warden, Iwill do that for both of yer.’ he replied.
‘But first I will needto get some help to lift the statue onto the trolley.’
‘Wait I might be ableto help.’ said Aquitain.
‘You sure?’ askedBellen, ‘Yer don’t look that strong.’
‘My Granddad alwayssaid the body’s weak compared with the mind.’ and with a smile ashe used his new telekinesis ability. The statue seemed toeffortlessly pick itself up, rotate to be parallel to the groundand float over to the trolley then lower itself down onto it.
‘Yer sure got some goodmuscles in yer head Lord Warden. I’ll take her to a nice spot,’said Bellen then he placed his hands on the statue and trolley andteleported away with them.
Aquitain thought for afew seconds.
‘He’s right, my mind isdefinitely getting stronger. I wasn’t sure that I could lift thatstatue at all, let alone that easily.’ he thought.
He checked his sourceagain. It was bigger than ever and definitely seemed to be growing.He was sure it was now as large as he remembered Granddad’s to beand he was considered a very powerful mind wizard. He thought aboutit for a while then decided there was much still to do and returnedto the current problems.
‘OK, Yllandril, it’snow your turn. I’ve been thinking about the mutations among theTrixies. There has to be something causing it and I don’t think itis the throne.’
‘Now I remember thatyou told me that in your capacity as Royal Healer you wereconcerned about the problem and working on it prior to beingpossessed by that spirit Schlum. Was anyone else concerned andlooking
